ABSTRACT
Historians have long known about the contradictory feelings that focused on the advent of the 20th century, although there has been some tendency to emphasize one phase or the other instead of grappling with odd combination. Intellectual assessments related to another turn-of-the-century current, not popular but widely popularized: the mood dubbed fin de siecle. This was the fin de siecle spirit, which emerged well in advance of the century's turn. Newspapers and periodicals competed to produce balance sheets of gains and losses during the 19th century and often extended these into predictions about the character of 20th century. Church services maintained the festive and upbeat tone. Technological criteria had figured strongly in more general forecasting efforts in later 19th century, including the emerging genre of science fiction, and they were usually associated with more generally beneficent gains. Progress in medical science formed another related category, with the Times particularly hailing the discoveries in pathology that explained the nature of disease.
